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HoUinger Corp. 
pH8.5 



WORLD TRACTS, NO. 1. 

iOO Copies, $3; 500 do., $10; 1,000 do., $12.00; 5,000 do., $50. 




SPEECHES OF 



EX-GOY. HORATIO SEYMOUR & HON. SAMUEL J. TILDEN, 



E 670 • 
.S53 
Copy 1 



BEFOEE THE 



DEMOCRATIC STATE CONVENTION 

AT ALBANY, MARCH 11, 1868. 



Speeoli of Ex-GoTernor Horatio Seymour 
before the New Vorlt State Deniovratic 
Convention, at Albany, JTXarcb 11. 

Gentlemen of the Convention : 

"We have seen that under the policy of our 
fcithers, wliich was adhered to for seventy years, 
we became a great and prosperous people, with 
light burdens of taxation, which were fairly and 
equally imposed, with freedom from official med- 
dling, that made us the envy and admiration of 
the world. It is now our duty to see what have 
been the results, in seven years, of the " policy of 
hate." The condition and laws of the land call 
upon us to sit in judgment upon rulers. Sad and 
painful as the duty may be, we must boldly probe 
to the bottom every ulcer and every wound upon 
the body politic. The war is ended, but peace 
has not returned. AVe have won the victory, but 
our Union is not restored. Our land is filled with 
mourning and distress, but anger, malice, and re- 
venge are not softened. The noble strife of arms 
has ceased, but the ignoble struggle for power, 
plunder, and place goes on. Congress has done 
more to de^roy the Union, to break down the 
fabric of ourGovernment, and to efface the max- 
ims and principles of our people, than was ever 
aimed at by rebellion. Its system of tyranny and 
corruption has not even the merit of, bemg well 
defined, intelligent, nor consistent. It has been 
bewildered for want of intelligence ; mconsistent 
and inconstant for want of principles ;'cruel from 
cowardice, and brutal from its instincts. Thes^, 
are not charges made only by politicajupnonents 
— they are admitted by its supportl^^mriy of 
whom implore it to stop in its mad career. The 
records of this body, and its ovra statute laws, 
show its inconsistent and imbecile policy. There 
are laws which tell you that when there was an 
armed, open, and at the time successful rebellion, 
^hese men held that the Southern States were not 
and could not be out of the Union. They formally 
called upon them for their quota to put do'wn their 
'own resistance to law. When the Southern States 
had laid do^Ti their arms they were told that they 
were not States in the Union. So the congressional 
theory is that they did not lose their State rights 
by rebellion, but by submission. But these States 
were told if they would abolish slavery they 
would have their place again. Slavery was Abol- 
ished by their action, and they made it imconsti- 
tutional in any part of the Union. They were 
then told they were no States at all, but unlawful 
combinations. So it followed that by abolishing 
■layery they half abolished themselves. g. 



THE NEGRO. 

Then it was held that their society was ra- 
duced to a cliaotic state, and Congress" would at 
once send down a military force to organize free, 
popular, and representative governments at the 
point of the bayonet. It would seem that in- 
genuity could go no further, but it did. It is a 
very notorious fact that nearly one-half of the 
people of the excluded States are negroes ; that 
they are in form, color, and character unlike the 
whites, and that they are, in their present condi- 
tion, an ignorant and degraded race. It is the 
clear duty of all men to lift them up as 
high as we can in intelligence, virtue and re- 
ligion. It is no time to stop and dispute about 
etlinological questions. We must do the best we 
can -with them and for them ; and I have no' 
doubt such will be the course of the Southern 
States. Their safety, happiness, and prosperity 
demand it. When they were about to enter 
upon their duty, Congress again steps forward, 
moved by a profound wisdom, and tells the 
South there .must be no more black or white 
men, no more differences of color, and that they 
must solemnly declare in their new State govern- 
ments that it shall be unlawful and a high crime 
to see or know the fact tliat any man is of Afri- 
can descent. But the people of the South re- 
plied, how can we do justice to these people if 
we do not respect the truths of their condition. 
Congress answers in the spirit of the witty 
Frenchman, " if facts stand in the way, so much 
the worse for facts." You must pass laws in 
your Conventions abolishing these vile truths. 
You must not know that there are such wicked 
things as difi"erences of race, color, and condi- 
tion, except you may, if you please, know that a 
man is an Indian. Having abolished the black 
man and made him a white man, by act of legis- 
lation. Congress hoped for rest in their efforts to 
M'eave a rope of sand which was to bind the men 
together, but the constitution of Alabama was 
rejected — the people would not vote for it; 
whereupon Senator Sherman, in full view of the 
fact that the President was menaced with im- 
peachment if he violated the Reconstruction 
act, moved that Congress itseK violate this samo 
measure by admitting Alabama under a consti- 
tution of its own rejection. The policy of Con- 
gress is more cruel toward the blacks than tha 
whites. These poor people who are now on 
trial to test their capacity to take care of them- 
selves, are thrust into positions demanding wis- 
dom, learning and experience ^ The wsut of 



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these in their Conventions and official life has 
exposed tliem to the ridicule of the world, and 
is a serious hindrance to their progress ; it has 
tilled their minds with false views and hojics ; it 
has turned them away from the duties of life , 
it has misled them as to the need of virtue, intel- 
ligence, and industry ; it is pushing them back 
'into barbarism by making them feel they can 
hold power before they have learned the de- 
mands of social life and liberty. So much for 
this miserable muddle of reconstruction. Uow 
can a Congress satisfy tlie people which cannot 
satisfy itself ; that has never been able to keep 
upon one course for six months ; tliat condemns 
and shames itself by constant change, repeal, 
and amendments? 

TARIFFS AND TAXES. 

Their action upon tarifls and business interests 
has been equally blundering, inconsistent, and 
imbecile. It keeps our merchants and manufac- 
turers in a condition of imcertainty, and all 
agree that a pei-petual Congress is a perpetual 
curse. Within the past few years it has made 
nearly monthly changes in the tariffs. It hin- 
ders labor and enterprise by heavj' burdens, and 
hunts down our merchants and manufacturers 
with an army of official spies and informers; 
and it gives these the power to ruin men of lim- 
ited means by false charges. It puts our Gov- 
ernment not onlj' in a light that is hateful, but 
what is more dangerous, it makes it pitiable. If 
our young men wish to engage in business or to 
seek homes in the West, and they ask from those 
who have money to lend the aid which has here- 
tofore been given for those pur2)oses, thej' are 
told that the Government, wliich ought to be pa- 
ternal, will pay a higher interest than the law 
will let the citizens give or than they can afford 
to give, and, also, beyond this, will exemjat them 
from taxation. Congress paralyzes, in this way, 
the industry of the land. WhicliQver way j'ou 
look you see that the party in power is a blight 
upon the honor, happiness, and industrial pur- 
siuts of our people. Our carr^'ing trade upon 
the ocean is destroyed, our shipyards are iiile, 
our merchants are distressed, our manufacturers 
complain that taxation outweighs the protection 
of tarifi', and our farmers are indignant with un- 

■ equal and insulting exemption from the cost of 
local. State, and national Governments. Upon 
one point onl^^ has it been firm and unyielding. 
In order to help a foul speculation it put a tax of 
500 per cent, upon alcohol, which, the experi- 
ence of the world and our own experience show, 
cannot be collected. It retains it with a perfect 
knowledge that it merely ministers to public and 
official corruption. The officers of the law and 

^ the violators have, under its provisions, taken 
more from the people than the interest of the 
public debt up to this time. In this strength 
they control the action of the Government, and 
this great stream of corruption is now the life- 
blood of a party held together by the cohesive 
power of pubhc plunder. 

CONGRESS AND MORALS. 

Congress is not only keeping the Government 
disorganized and the ousiness of the country un- 
hinged and perplexed, but it is also unsettling 
the morala of the country. It proclaims to the 
world the sanctity of 'bonds, obligations, and 
contracts, and at the same time, under the influ- 
ence and by the action of its party friends, many' 
of Uie States which make up the Union have de- 



frauded the public creditors by forcing them to 
take depreciatca paper in return for the coin 
or its equivalent, which was given for their bonds. 
Going still deeper in dishonor by its laws, the 
debtor who may have received coin or other con- 
sideration equally valuable, and who has in sol- 
emn covenant agreed to paj' in coin, is allowed 
and encouraged to violate his faith and to com- 
pel his creditor to take debased paper. Is it 
strange that in the face of these things our credit 
is tainted in the markets of tlie world, and that 
our bonds sell for less than those of the TuAs 1 
If the moralitv of the citizens of the country is 
undermined, if the faitli of the States making up 
the Union is dishonored, where is the security of 
the national credit ? The late Republican State 
Convention exjiressed its horror of repudiation. 
AVill its members explain the villainy whicli 
forced the crecntors of this great commercial 
State to take paper at one time worth but fifty 
cents on the dollar ? This was done in the face 
of entreaties from a Democratic Governor not to 
dishonor New York, and in opposition to the 
votes of every Democratic Senator. Will these 
men explain the indecency of an official in 
another State who insulted a foreign creditor for 
asking money as good as that he had loaned to 
the second State of the Union ? Yet its Repub- 
lican legislature refused to rebuke the indecent 
action of this indecent official. 

FINANCES. 

Questions of finance, of debt and taxation, 
have harassed all nations and perplexed states- 
men in all periods. We have got to meet them 
surrounded with new difficulties and dangers. 
We do not yet know the full sum of the liqui- 
dated and unliquidated claims. The montJdy 
statements show that it is a swelling flood, whose 
volume is not yet measured and whose depth is 
unplumbed. Our people are unused to a govern- 
ment which pries into every private transaction 
to extort tribute. They are bewildered with the 
train of spies, informers, and officials, always 
brought into use where taxes are taken from one 
class and paid to another. The irritation is in- 
creased when the creditor enjoys, beyond an am- 
ple and usurious interest, special privileges and 
exemptions. There is a greater peril. We were 
once divided into free and slave States. The 
antagonism in the end filled our land with blood- 
shed andlRnaourning. As the i^ublie bonds are 
mainly held in one corner of our country, we are 
now divided into debtor and creditor States. 
What will be the end of this ? At an early stage 
of the war, we warned the party in power against 
this fearful result of their policy. We warned 
them in vain. Nay, more, as if bent upon mak- 
ing ruin certain, they built up a banking sj'stem 
which was to have a monopoly of putting out 
currency, and was to get double usur-y — interest 
from Government upon its bonds, and interest 
from the people upon the currency issued upon 
those bonds. To render its monopoly comjolete, 
all other banks were taxed out of existence. Eut 
madness and folly did not stop here. These 
banks were not allotted to the difierent 
States, so there should be even geograplii- 
cal fairness; but the States which held the 
bonds, which had the most wealth and made 
the most* money out of the war, were al- 
lowed to absorb nearly the whole of the 
§300,000,000 to which they were limited, while 
the States which most needed currency in their 



transactions were cut off. Let me give one in- 
stance to show upon what rule the spoils of vic- 
tory and the burdens of war were distributed. 
The State of Massachusetts has of the banliing 
privilege $56,000,000; Illinois $9,000,000. Yet 
IlliTiois is the more populous State, and to send 
its produce to market needs more currency than 
any State in the Union. But when men must be 
had to fill the ranks of our armies, then each 
State must give its quota. Now, we have ever 
had a plain rule to get at the just sliare of taxes 
and burdens. Taxation and representation must 
go together. But a new system was gotten up 
for the quota. They were based upon the enroll- 
ment of able-bodied men. Under this rule there 
were endless questions as to liability to be en- 
rolled and constructions of law. Orders and 
counter orders and explanatory orders were put 
forth by the Provost-Marshal General until every 
one was bewildered. But under all this there 
were quiet manipulations which made the follow- 
ing result: In Democratic districts in this State 
the men were held to be vigorous and robust and 
fit to bear arms. In Republican districts they 
were loj-al but weakly. In Massachusetts the 
men as a class were so feeble that a congressional 
district coidd only send 2,167. In Illinois, dis- 
tricts had to send 4,004, So much for the bur- 
dens. How was the spoil divided ? We find 
that bank stock was given to Massachusetts at 
the rate of $52 to each inhabitant, and to Illinois 
at the rate of $Q to each I The record will show 
how earnestly in this place and elsewhere we pro- 
tested against this madness and folly. Alarmed 
at this new source of danger to our country, as 
it was a period of great distress at the West, in 
my message of 1864, I urged the legislature to 
reduce the tolls on Western produce or to carrj^ 
it toll free, in order to check the hostile feelings 
growing up in that section of the country against 
the Atlantic States. But I urged in vain. Our 
canals were in the hands of tliieves and robbers, 
who would not let these tolls be diverted from 
their own pockets. The shadow of this sectional 
question now falls upon us. It has macle confu- 
sion in the Kepublican ranks in Congress. The 
resolution to pay Government bonds in gold, 
which was confidently brought forward at the 
beginning of the session, sleeps in committee- 
rooms and will never see the light again. Men 
of both parties at the West ■will strug;gle to be 
foremost in measures which will meet tlie feelings 
of that section. 

THE GREENBACK QUESTION. ' 

It has been proposed to pay most of these 
bonds in the paper money called greenbacks, and 
it is claimed that this will save the people 
$400,000,000, without doing injustice to their 
holders, as it is alleged it M"a3 the contract they 
should thus be paid. This is denied by others, 
and it is clear that the proposal has excited 
alarm, not only as to the mode of paj-ment, but 
as to a growing feeling in favor of repudiating 
the whole debt. This springs out of the stupid 
folly which exempted the bondiiolders from tax- 
ation, which lowered the price of tlie bond, as it 
made from the beginning a distrust that a meas- 
ure so odious would endanger their payment. 
The next cause of this feeling is the fact that the 
party in power, to shield themselves from the 
odium of crushing taxation, give out that this is 
necesuary to pay our debts, wiien, in fact, two- 
thirds of the money wrung from the people is 



wasted in corruption, or lavished upon ofRciaJa, 
or spent in upholding the enormous cost of oar 
Government undcy its policy of keeping one-third 
of the States out of tin; Union by military force. 
The whole odium of tliis taxation they throw 
upon the debt and the bondholders. The last and. 
perhaps tlie greatest peril to the public credit and 
honor, is the fact whicli meets us at every turn, 
and anno3-s wherever met, that the bondholder is 
paid in coin, wliile honest labor gets a debased 
paper money. This state of affairs alarms everj' 
thoughtful man. IIow are these perils to be 
averted ? We boldly and honestly met these 
questions at the last election in this State, and 
we won a triumph that astonished the country 
and terrified our opponents. We wUl meet them 
in the same spirit in our national councils, and 
we will sweep corruption and usurpation out of 
the National Capitol. We will show that d re- 
turn to economy, honesty, and constitutional or-. 
der is demanded alike by the interests of the 
taxpayer and tlie public creditors, by the bond- 
holder and the laborer. This sectional division 
of our country into debtor and creditor States 
lias caused mucli anxiety in the minds of thought- 
ful men, lest it should distract the counsels of 
our party. While on the one hand the oppres- 
sive legislation which burdens the West with 
high tariffs, together with the fact that the reve- 
nues drawn from all sections are mainly paid out 
to one, excites deep feeling ; on the other hand, 
the bonds bo unwisely and wastefully issued, 
have gone into the hands of innocent holders, 
who to a vast amount are compulsory owners. 
It is a mistake to suppose that they are mostly 
held by capitalists. Large sums belonging to 
children and widows, under the order of courts 
or the action of trustees, have been invested in 
Government bonds. The vast amounts held by t 
life and fire insurance companies and savings 
banks, are, in fact, held in trust for and are the 
reliance of the great body of active business and 
laboring men or women, or of widows and or- 
phans. The savings banks of this State, which 
are the depositories of the poor or of persons of 
limited means, hold about $60,000,000 of Gov- 
ernment bonds. The whole amount held in the 
State of New York, in the various forms of trust, 
will not fall below S'iOO, 000,000. If we look into 
other States, we shall see that only a small share 
of these bonds are held by men known as capital- 
ists, but they belong, in fact if not in form, to the 
business, the active and the laboring members of 
society. The destruction of these securities 
would make a widespread ruin and distress, 
which would reach into every workshop and 
every home, however humble. ^ 

THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY AND THE NATIONAL >.EBT. 

There is a perfect accord in the Democratic 
ranks as to the policy and the need of honesty 
and economy, but there is some difference of 
opinion as to the . construction of the contract 
with the public creditor. Some hold that it is 
right, and tliat it is due to the taxpaj'ers, that we 
should save what we can by paying principal of 
debt in currency, but they underrate the force of 
their own arguments. It is a mistake to sup- 
pose that the interests of the bondholder and the 
taxpayers are antagonistie. The fact is over- 
looked, that in order to make any saving by giv- 
ing the bondholder a debased or worthless paper, ' 
we must bring upon ourselves disaster and dis- 
honor, which will cost a hundred-fold what we 



jjan save. It moanfi that we are to give to tlie 
jaborer for iiia toil abase currency; it means 
that the honor of our country ^hall be stained ; 
it means that our business shall be kept in un- 
certainty and confusion; it means that the labor- 
ing man sliall sulfer by the increased cost of 
the comforts of life ; it means that the taxpayer 
shall be burdened by a Government proved to be 
corrupt and imbecile b}' this very depreciation 
of its money. We cannot aftbrd to speculate 
npon the nation's honor at so fearful a cost. 
When a dishonored merchant or a corrupt gov- 
ernment wishes to make large profit in specula- 
lang in their own paper, they must dishonor 
themselves as much as they can. There is a 
great gain in this plan, as upheld by Messrs. 
Butler and Stevens ; they not only proj)Ose to 
pay in depreciated paper, but they are doing 
what they can to dishonor the character and 
•credit of the countrj'. If they carry out their 
corrupt revolutionary schemes, they will pay off 
the debt with paper which is not worth ten cents 
on the dollar. There is no Democrat livii'.g who 
thinks (his can be done with safety, or that it is 
for the interest of the tax|iaj'er at the J'-ast or 
West, livery Democrat demands a policy of 
peace, order, and economy, and just so far as he 
gains that he lifts up the national credit ; he 
helps tlie taxpaj'er and does justice to the bond- 
holder ; he makes our currency as good as ster- 
ling coin- for that will rise wilh the public 
credit, liie error is in suj)posing that under a 
Democratic administration the currency would 
etill stand fixed at a discount of one-quarter. 
To sa}' that, is to say that we are to fail as our 
opponents have failed. The nation's credit can- 
not be bought at a profit unless the nation's 
character is dishonored. If we come into power 
there will be no discredit on our currency, no 
speculation in paying our bonds in paper. I 
thank God that the faith which we all hold as 
one man, seeks to level up, not to level down. It 
means that sterling coin shall ring again on the 
counter of the tradesman and glitter in the palm 
of labor, and gladden the heart of the wounded 
soldier. Our friends forget the force of their 
own argument. When they show how the debt 
will be paid and taxation lightened by economy 
and honestj", they also show our paper money 
will be made as good as gold. The downward 
course of the men in power admits of traffick- 
ing in the honor of the country. They can 
sink it to that point that the payments of the 
debt will be an easy matter, but it will be at 
the cost of the honor, the peace and welfare of 
our land. While, therefore, we may differ as to 
the construction of the contract with the pubbc 
creditor, we must not confound the positions of 
those who think it right to pay in paper, but 
who battle to make that paper as good as gold, 
with the position of those wlio mean not only to 
pay in paper, but who are also destroying the 
value of that ])aper. That is repudiation. We 
are not trying to give paper to the bondholders, 
but gold and silver to the people. Tiiere is 
nothing to fear from those who think by the 
contract you should take paper, if they take a 
course which will make that paper as good as 
gold. Tliere is ever^-thing to fear from those 
who are driving on to bankruptcy, and it mat- 
ters not what their professions may be. 

AN APPEAL TO THE COUNTET. 

We appeal to the bondholder to join with the 



taxpayers at the East and West in saving our 
country. We hold no bonds, but in common with 
you, we want the money wrung from us, not squan- 
dered in corrupt, treasonable and revolutionary 
schemes, but used to pay our debts. Then you 
will get your dues, and we shall be lightened of 
our loads. Help us to put men out of power who 
try to put all the odium of taxation upon you, 
while they grasp the proceeds; who endanger 
j'our claims by putting you in the light of a 
favored class, not because they give you a better, 
but the people a worse currency. Help us to wipe 
out as soon as we can this debt with its unpopular 
exemptions, lest the men who justify repudiation 
by States separately shall also declare for it by 
their joint action in Congress. If it is possible, 
you, more than we, are interested in putting an 
end to the mad career of Congress. We appeal 
to those who guard by policies of insurance 
against the dangers of fire, which may sweep 
away their propertj' ; to those who trj' by life in- 
surance to make provision for their families when 
death takes them away ; to those who have put 
their slender earnings into savings banks so that 
thej' may have some support in sickness or mis- 
fortune — to see if they have not a deep interest in 
stopping our Government in its career of bank- 
ruj)tcy and dishonor. W^e implore them to bear 
in mind that the only security they have for the 
sacred purposes of their policies and deposits are 
the bomls of the Government, and those will be 
worthless if there is not an administration put in 
power which will seek to bring back peace, order 
and economy, and honesty, to our countr}'. We 
appeal to the bondholders to help rescue our 
country from the hands of corrupt and wasteful 
men. Dy so doing they will not only best secure 
their own interests, but will gain the good-will and 
gratitude of the oppressed laborers and tay-pav'^ra. 

A WORD TO CAPITAU3TS. 

We are not influenced in our views either by 
hostility to or regard for the wealthy, but with a 
sole purpose to do right. For that class of men 
called capitalists I have no peculiar respect, for 
they liave shown but little respect for themselves. 
They have never risen up to a sense of the truth 
that wealth and power carry with them duties and 
responsibilities. While a British Peer of the 
Realm goes to the hustings through scenes of rude- 
ness and violence unknown at our elections, our 
men of wealth in the city of New York feel they 
have not enough of character to carry out the du- 
ties of citizenship. They labor under a sense of 
uncertainty of position which must be bolstered 
up by a careful avoidance of tiie rougher duties 
of life. I do not complain that they are not with 
us, but that they are nowhere when political duty 
is to be done. Absorbed in their greed for gain 
they have, without one manly protest, seen the 
shipping of their city, which was the pride and 
glory of our nation, swept from the seas by selfish 
and sectional legislation. One hour of the honest 
pride of the grand old commercial cities of Eu- 
rope would have saved us from this humiliation. 
I can never forget when a cruel and wicked wrong 
was done to the poor and laboring classes of their 
fellow-citizens; to those who swelled their in- 
comes by their toil, these men looked on with 
cold indifference. When, as Chief Magistrate of 
this State, I struggled to right the wrong, amidst 
a storm of abuse and calumny, not one of them' 
even looked to see if there was justice in my 
charges ; nay, most of them, \\ath selfish coward- 



ice, swelled the chorus of defagiation. So gross 
was the outrages of wliich I complained, that even 
their authors were forced, by the proof, to let go 
their hold upon the throats of their victims. In 
this struggle of poverty against power — for it was 
against the districts wliere the poorer classes lived 
that this cruelty was levelled — there was no word 
of sympathy or inquiry from tlie capitalists, who 
should have shielded tlie laborers. It gives me 
great pleasure at this point to do justice to my 
political opponents. At a time when party pas- 
sions were envenomed and ])orsonal* prejudice 
against myself were at their lieight, a Republican 
Assembly of this State gave me an unanimous 
vote of thanks for m}'^ efturts to correct tliesc er- 
rors when they saw I was in tlio right and tiiat 
tliey liad been in the wrong. It was a noble act 
of courtesy and justice. 

THE NATIONAL DEBT. 

I deem it my duty to speak frankly on the sub- 
ject of tlie deljt. We owe it to our friends in 
other States to let them know our position, so 
that we may not fall into the fatal error of mak- 
ing sectional questions a part of our national 
platform. Tiiey would with justice reproacli us if 
we suffered them to hinder us in our battle in tliis 
great State, v.diich must be won or our country is 
lost. We have issues enough with the parties in 
power upon whicli we think as one man, to over- 
whelm it with disgrace and defeat. We must 
not distract our counsels with questions, however 
important they may be, upon which there is so 
much of doubt, and which cannot be settled in 
many years to come. We must not tlms turn 
away the public mind from the dangers which 
threaten the immediate destruction of the fabric 
^' of our Government and the liberties of our peo- 
ple. Even now the hand of iisurpation is 
stretolied out to rob us of all our rights, and it 
must be struck down first of all. Whatever our 
views may be, the payment of this debt will fall 
upon the future. iJo what we may, a generation 
that will come after us will decide its modes 
without regard to anything that we may say. 
The depressed industry of our land, its sulfering 
labor, demands that the load of taxation shall be 
liglitened. Our debt is not due until fifteen 
years from this time. How few of those who 
now discuss this question will be living then ! If 
in the meanwhile our country is well governed, 
if there is economy in the conduct of its affairs 
and tlie rights and liberties of our people shall 
be unimpiiired, our population will be iacreased 
from thirty-five to fifty millions, our v/ealth will 
be more t'.ian doubled. Then this debt will rest 
more lightly upon greater numbers and greater 
wealth, than it presses to-day upon the depressed 
industry and disheartened spirit of the people. 
At our last election in this State, we won a vic- 
tory which gave new hope to the friends of con- 
stitutional order throughout the land. It gave 
joy to the liearts of those who seek an honest, 
honorable aduunistration of public afl'airs. We 
won that victoiy because we lifted our standard 
high. There came up to uphold our banner the 
laborer, the taxpayer, and the bondholder, for 
they saw'that we were battling for economy, for 
honesty and honor in the conduct of public af- 
fairs. They felt that these were demanded by 
our common interests; that the weight of gov- 
ernment did not grow out of the cost of uphold- 
ing the honor of the country, but the cost of sup- 
porting a dishonest and dishonorable party in 



power. We deeply regret that our position, 
should be censured in any quarter. But we can- 
not lower our standard. We will not betray 
those who came up to its support. It is enough 
that honor forbids this. Even if we could stoop 
to aught that is less than honorable, even policy 
would dictate that this great State should be 
held firm and steadfast in its position, if we hope 
to save our country from the dangers that men- 
ace it. While it is due to our party and the pub- 
lic to speak plainly upon the financial questioa 
which will, for many years to come, perplex and 
harass the creditor and the tax payer, I turn from 
the discussion about the mode of payment at this 
moment with a degree of impatience, "i feel aa I 
should if one with whom I had a long and vexa- 
tious litigation upon the terms of an agreement 
should, in the dead of night, break into my 
house, rob my treasures, and attempt to fire my 
home. If when seized in the act of «rime, loaded 
with plunder, with .the tinder and match upoa 
his person which were to kindle the flame, he 
should coolly propose to stop and discuss the 
questions under the contract, the indignant an- 
swer would be, you are stealing four-fold the 
amount In controversy ; you are trying to des- 
troy a hundred-fold its sum in value by incendi- 
ary fire. I will not jiut m3'self upon your level in 
the civil courts ; I go against you for burglary and 
arson ; I seize and denounce j'ou as a criminal, and 
you shall suffer the penalty of violated law. 
war OPPOSED to congress. 
I go against this Congress for its crimes, and 
above all for those which it is (now perpetrating 
against the liberties of the people and the sanc- 
tity of the Judiciary. While we sit here they 
drag the Chief Magistrate of our country, wiio 
has been stripped of rightful power and shackled 
with humiliating restraints, before a tribunal 
which decreed his sentence before the charges 
against him were framed. And what are these 
charges? He dared, against brutal and indecent 
statutory insults, to appeal to judicial tribunal. 
He dared to do his duty and v.'arn the people 
against the follies and crimes of their legislators. 
This Congress has declared that to test its acta 
in the courts established for that purpose is a 
crime, and that freedom of speech is a liigh ml* 
demeanor 1 When the President entered upon 
his duties, he took a solemn oatli that "to the 
best of his ability he would preserve, protect, 
and defend 'the Constitution of the United 
States." For trying to do this according to his 
conscience he is imjjeached. If tliis higli officer 
may not appeal to the courts, if he may not at 
all times, by speech or writing, warn the people 
of the dangers which menace their rights and 
liberties, what protection is there for the hum- 
ble citizen ■? We are not left to inference. Men 
iiave bean arrested without warrant, have lan- 
guished or died in prisons, without trial, and in 
many instances have never known what oft'encea 
were imputed to them. The bill is already 
framed to take away from citizens the appeal to 
the courts in cases touching their dearest rights. 
In ten States, military power tramples tiie judi- 
cial under foot. These men mistake t'ae spirit of 
the people. We defied them wlien tliey were 
backed bj' a million of armed men. We despise 
them now as they tremble on the brink of dis- 
grace and defeat. During the past two years 
they have been active in degradirg the Executive 
and disgracing themselves. Tney may arraign 



6 



Mr. Johnson for brin^jin!^ Ihcm into dislionor 
and public contempt, but their own conduct, not 
his speeches, brought this siiame upon them. 

ANDREW JOnNSOX. 

I have no political prejudices in favor of Mr. 
Johnson. I have never seen him. He is not 
one I helped to place in ofKce, nor have I ever 
advised him or been consulted by hira as to his 
policy. I know he has been cheated and be- 
trayed by those about hira, who plotted 
his destruction from tlie outset. But while 
he has been most luihappy in his friends, 
no maa has been so fortunate in his enemies. 
They have g^iven him a hig-h place in history as 
one who sufi'ered for the rights of the American 
people. And when he shall go to his final ac- 
count and his friends seek in clear, terse, and 
lasting terms to tell that he was a man who 
loved his co.^itry and was hated by the corrupt 
and treasonable, they have, to chisel upon his 
tombstone that he was imijeached by this House 
of Representatives and condemned by tliis Senate. 

IlirEACUMENT. 

But Congress seems te have aimed at a dra- 
matic effect, and seeks to excite an interest iu 
this " taking off" like that which attaches to the 
assassination of crowned heads in darker ages. 
A stranger entering the halls of the Capitol, and 
who learned there that one was to be deposed 
because he stood in the way of unlawful ambi- 
tion or corrupt schemes, as he looked over the 
assemblage and listened to the debates, would 
readily pick out those who were to do the dark 
deed. The face of one would tell his character ; 
muttering about judicial murder would suggest 
another. A third would be an old man tottering 
apon the crumbling edge of the grave, whose 
counsels should be those of peace and charity, 
but who shocks the world by that saddest of all 
sights — wdtliered age given over to evil pas- 
sions, and in its last days muttering profane 
curses and showing imbecile malice as it sinks 
into the grave. In view of the foul ends aimed 
at by the body that one day is agitated by dis- 
cordant passions, b}' mutual reproaches and 
taunts of crime, and tiie next is whipped into ac- 
cord by guilty fears — these are fit instruments. 
Who more eager than they to gain a decree that 
it is a crime to appeal to the judiciary they hate 
and fear? AVho so deeplj' concerned for a de- 
cision that freedom of speech is a high misde- 
meanor as they who are daily galled and 
etnng and tortured b}' the uttered scorn of a 
people ? We agree with tlicm that open discus- 
sion tends to bring this Congress into public eon- 
tempt. When tlie sentence is prejudged the 
trial will be speedy. No one thinks tlie solemn 
mockery means a fair and honest trial. Tiiere 
was a shudder when certain Senators solemnly 
swore to judge impartially. These very forms 
of procedure, which were meant to secui-e a fair 
trial, are hideous when used as marks to hide 
the malice and hate that is impotent to speak the 
verdict which must not in form go before the 
trial. They shock us as do palls and shrouds 
and grave-clothes, which wrap up the body of 
dead and decaj'ing justice, while the grave-dig- 
gers of tiie House wait to do their office of put- 
ting away the murdered victim. Tliis Congress 
has by its action oijened wide the door for the 
entrance of many disorganizing schemes; it has 
given to the future many dangerous precedents, 



but none so dangerous as this, none so deadly in 
its tendencies. 

ANOTHER rMPEACmiENT. 

But there is anotlier impeachment to be tried 
before a more august tribunal than the Senate. 
We arraign tliis Congress before the people of 
these United States for its crimes against lib- 
erty ; against the Union ; against the rights of 
our citizens. We impeach them in words of our 
Fathers against tlie British Crown in tlie declara- 
tion of independence — because it "has rendered 
tlie military independent of and superior to the 
civil power" — because it "has erected a multi- 
tude of new offices and sent swarms of officers to 
harass our people and eat out their substance." 
We impeach it " for depriving us in manj- cases 
of the benefits of trial by jury," " for taking 
away our charters, abolishing our most valuable 
laws, and altering fundamentally tlie powers of 
our Government; " "for suspending legislatures 
and doclaiing themselves invested witli power to 
legislate in all cases whatsoever." Beyond the 
crimes charged by our Fathers against the Brit- 
ish crown, we also impeach Congress for its gross 
and continued violation of the solemn declara- 
tion made to the American people and to the 
world, that they waged war upon the South for 
the sole purpose of restoring our Union, which 
Union they now keep sundered for selfish, party, 
and corrupt purposes. We also impeach them 
as enemies to the liberties of the American peo- 
ple, when they seek to take away the protection 
of the judiciary and rob us of the freedom of 
speech. There can be no freedom in that country 
where courts of law are closed against the citizen 
who seeks protection from unconstitutional stat- 
utes. There is no help against tyranny, outrage, 
or corruption, if there is no appeal to the inde- 
pendent judiciary, " There is no liberty in a 
land if the power of the judiciary be not sepa- 
rated from the legislative and executive depart- 
ments." What, tlien, is t!ie condition of our 
country when in one-third of our States the judi- 
ciary is under the feet of the military — that mil- 
itary which our fathers told us must ever be kept 
in subordination to civil authoritj'. In the grand 
old republic of Home, the genei-al who command- 
ed armies was not admitted witliin the walls of 
the capitol. A Roman Senate would not let the 
shadow of military power fall upon the pave- 
ments of their city, but an American Senate 
with guilty cowardice clings to the skirts of a 
victorious general. We warn those who have 
gained the gratitude of the American people 
upon the battle-field against soiling tlieir fame 
by becoming the tools of bad and artful men. 
There was no braver spirit in the struggle of the 
revolution than that of him who won victories by 
his courage, whose blood sprinkled the field of 
battle, and t-ho at one time was the idol of a 
people who now hold his memory in scorn, for 
he proved a traitor to liberty, 

■WHAT MUST r.E D0>'E. 

But we must not be content with merely win- 
ning a political victory. We must do more. We 
must fire the hearts of our people with tliat love 
of liberty and fill their mind with a reverence for 
the judiciary which animated our Fathers, when 
they engraved upon the corner-stones of State 
and National Governmeuts, that the military 
should ever be kept in subordination to civil au- 
thority. It may be asked vvhat motives have this 



Congresg to resort to acts of violence unknown 
herelofore ? The vast increase of patronage has 
much to do with it, but neither love of power nor 
greed for gain would make them adopt desperate 
measures to hold place against tlie will of the peo- 
ple ; the motive for this conduct is fear — the ter- 
ror of the exposures which must be made when 
the books are overlooked and the records laid 
bare. Nothing is so rash as fear. This is the se- 
cret of their forcible, desperate hold upon the 
War Department. Tliere was terror in many 
bosoms until the Secretary had fortified himself 
Avith armed men at his doors. "What but fear held 
in one leash him from Ohio with him of Jlassa- 
chusetts, while tliey hunted do\\Ti the President? 
no man who looks upon them as accusers thinks 
of aught else than the foul reproaches they have 
howled against each other of crimes base and hor- 
rible, before which all that is charged against him 
Ihey persecute is light and trivial. Was it decent 
to couple them together ? No one can have failed 
to notice that whenever any unusual act of despe- 
ration was to be done in Congress, those members 
resting under imputations of outrage or corrup- 
tions were active upon the floor. At once were 
heard the voice of generals stupid on the battle- 
field and brutal in civil stations, men haunted 
with guilty fears which could not be quieted down. 
The struggle is to hold power until time shall 
wipe out the records of their guilt, or sweep away 
tlie witnesses of thair crimes. What should be 
the attitude and action of the Democratic party 
at tliis time ? No ground must be taken without 
consultation nor without perfect accord. We are 
not battling to promote personal views, but to up- 
hold the wisdom of our fathers and to bring back 
the rule of the Constitution. Our march must be 
like that of the Macedonian Phalanx with locked 
shields and measured tread. No man must break 
from the ranks to push forward from vanity or to 
drop behind from fear. 

When we have gained our victory by boldness 
and courage, we nuist use it with patient forbear- 
ance, avoiding as far as we can violent changes, 
and seeking to give the people rest from the im- 
certainties and imbecility which have harassed 
them during the past five years. "We must 



lighten ta.xation by restoring our Union, thus &t 
once cutting down our expenses and putting the 
South into a condition to aid in bearing our bur- 
dens. It is one of the perplexities of bad laws 
that under them many innocent interests grow 
up which embarrass the legislator in his eiforts 
to undo the work of unwise men. In such cases, 
there must be patient forbearance until wrongs 
can be righted and can be cured without doing 
injustice to any. Our Saviour teaches us that 
when evil spirits sow tares among the wheat, for 
a time the evil and the good must grow together. 
" Constitutional liberty," in the glowing words 
of Justice Story, " must perish, if there be not 
that vital spirit in the people which alone can 
nourish, sustain, and direct all its movements. It 
is in vain that statesmen shall form plans of gov- 
ernment, in which the beauty and harmony of a 
republic shall be built upon solid substructure 
and adorned by every useful ornament, if the 
itdiabitants sufler the silent power of time to di- 
lapidate its walls or crumble its many supporters 
into dust. If the assaults from without are 
never resisted, and the rottenness and mining from 
within are never guarded against, who can pre- 
serve the rights and liberties of the people wlien 
they shall be abandoned by themselves ? Who 
shall keep watch in the tem])le, M'hcn the watch- 
men sleep at their posts? Who should call upon 
the people to redeem their possessions and revive 
the republic, when their own hands have delib- 
erately and corruptly surrendered them to the 
oppressor, and have built the prisons or dug the 
graves of their own friends?" Let us, then, ap- 
peal to the virtue of our people. I believe tliat 
now they ponder by their firesides upon that 
time when under Democratic rule we had honest 
officials, economy in afiairs, and a currency of 
sterhng coin. I believe their hearts are stirred 
with indignation at the outrages now perpetrated 
at Washington. Let us, then, write in letters of 
gold the words honor, honestj^, and economy 
upon one side of the folds of our flags, and upon 
the other freedom of speech and an independent 
judiciary. Then lift our standard high and 
march on. The path of honor is the path to 
victory. 



SPEECH 

OF TUE 

Hon. SAMUEL J. TILDEI!^, 



DEMOOEATIO STATE CON^T^NTIOX OF NEW YOEK, 

HELD AT ALB.iIfY, M-illCH 11, 18G8. 



Gentlemen of the Convention : On the forma- 
idon of the Government of the Unit?d States, 
tlie question still remained to be solved what 
practical character should be impressed upon it 
in its actual administration. Gouverneur ]\Ior- 
ris, who had fav(/red a centralized system tend- 
ing to aristocracy and n onarchy, when asked 
his opinion of the Constitution, answered, "That 
depends on how it is construed." 

ERA OF ORGAXIC DISCrSSIONS. 

During the controversies of its earlier years, 
men's minds were constantly turned towards or- 



ganic questions. Every mensure was tested by 
its relations to such questions. Parties imj)uted 
to each other designs to change the character of 
the Government. Jefferson in the nation and 
George Clinton in this state led the dcmocTatic 
masses against a centralism which they feared 
would in practice assimilate our new institutions 
to tlie British system, from which the revolution 
had emancipated us; and it is now historically 
cei tain that a powerful element in tiie Federal 
party of that day did in fact desire such a result. 
Hamilton believed Burr, even while the latter 



stood high in public esteem, to be capable of a 
Roman or French ambition ; and did not deem his 
success in establishing a dictatorship or an em- 
pire impossible, if he could gain the presidency 
and wield its powers for that object. Other emi- 
nent public men entertained the same fears of 
Hamilton, in the event of a civil convu'sion, 
which Hamilton expected. AVith such ideas in 
men's minds, the political contest of 1800 was 
fought, and decided in the City of New York 
for the State and for the Union. 

ERA OF ADSDNISTRATIVE DISCUSSIOMS. 

The result closed the first era ot onr govern- 
mental history. The liberal and bencticent poli- 
tical philosophy of Jefferson became ascendant 
everywhere in the public councils and in the pop- 
ular opinion. The essential character of the 
Government became fixed ; and men's ideas in 
respect to it settled. Organic questions — debates 
as to the structure of the Government ceased to 
occupy public attention. For sixty years, our 
controversies turned on questions of administra- 
tive policy. Eddies in the current of our jiro- 
gress, there were. The war of 1812, even under 
Madison, caused a centralization in administra- 
tive measures and policies which cost us a quar- 
ter of a century of peace to remove. But, on 
the whole, the master wisdom of governing little, 
and leaving as much as possible to localities and 
to individuals prevailed; and we progressively 
limited the sphere of governmental action, and 
enlarged the domain of individual conscience 
and judgment. These sixty years were a period 
of transcendent national growth and prosperity, 
and of universal happiness among the people. 

CIVIL -WAR? 

How and why we passed from that fortunate 
condition into a gigantic civil war ; the moral and 
social causes which graduall}- prepared such a re- 
sult; the events of that conflict, 1 cannot pause to 
jdiscuss. \Vhen at last we brought the contest to 
a successful issue, and especially when the volun- 
tary extinction of slavery declared, — what moral 
and material causes had already made certain, — 
that our northern systems of society and indus- 
try are to prevail in every part of this continent 
which shall be occupied by us, I hoped that we 
might speedily restore the people of the revolted 
States to their true relations to the Union ; and 
then that we might at once begin to deal with 
the administrative questions which the war had 
cast upon us. 

ADMI>JISTRATIVE REFORM REQUIRED. 

Questions of this sort there were enough for 
a generation of the most earnest political activ- 
ity. The reaction against the heresy of seces- 
Bion — the public necessities during agreat war — 
the lead throughout all that struggle of a party 
always imbued with false ideas of government, 
and with obsolete notions of political economy, 
and always dominated over by class interests, — 
had created for the time an overwhelming ten- 
dency to centralism. All our administrative sys- 
tems had become buried under a fungus-growth 
which was smothering all trade and sucking out 
the vitality of all the industries of the country. 

PAaKICATION NECESSARY FIRST. 

I looked to the Democratic party as the only 
agency through which the government could be 
brought back to the liberal ideas and beneficent 

folicies which had prevailed under Jefferson and 
ackson ; but before we could enter on the work 



of administrative and economical reform, pacifi- 
catioa was necessary. 

RESTORATION BY THE REPUBLICAN PARTY WAS EAST. 

A complete and harmonious restoration of the 
revolted States would have been effected if the 
Republican party had not proved to be totally in- 
capable of acting in the case with any large, wise, 
or firm statesmanship. 

A magnanimous policy would not only have 
completed the pacification of the country, but 
would have effected a reconciliation between the 
Republican party and the white race in the South. 
Every circumstance favored such a result. The 
Republican party possessed all the jiowersof the 
government, and held sway over every motive of 
gratitude, fear or interest. The Southern people 
had become thoroughly weary of the contest; 
more than half of them had been originally oj> 
posed to entering into it, and had done so only 
when nothing was left to them but to choose on 
which side they would fight. Few would ever 
have favored the measures which led to the con- 
flict of arms, if they had anticipated such a con- 
flict; many had all the while felt a lingering re- 4 
grct in ceasing to belong to agreat country which 
they had been accustomed to regard with proud 
ambition ; and all remembered that they had 
been prosperous, contented and happy as Ameri- 
can citizens. The mass yearned to come back 
to what was left of their birthright. On the sur- 
render of General Lee, every hostile sword fell, 
and the abolition of slavery was yielded as a 
peace offering with universal alacrity. 

All that was necessary to heal the bleeding 
wounds of the country, and to allow its languish- 
ing industries to revive, was that the Republican 
party, — which boasts its great moral ideas, and 
its philanthropy, — should rise to the moral eleva- 
tion of an ordinary pugilist, and cease to strike 
its adversary after he was down. 

THE REPUBLICAN PARTY ON TRIAL. 

This crisis was the trial of the Republicaa 
p .rty. The question was, whether it could be- 
come a permanent party in the country, contin- 
uing to govern for the present, capable of be- 
in r, from time to time, c:illed to govern; or 
whether it must confess itself to be but a revo- 
lutionary faction, accepted by the people during 
war — accei)ted for the venom if not the vigor 
with whichit could strike- —acting often "outside 
the Constitution" — often converting the regular 
and lawful organs of the government into a 
French committee of public safety or a Jacobin 
club — and now, incapable of adapting itself to the 
work of pacification, when that has become the 
commanding public necessity ; and, therefore, its 
miss'.ou being fulfilled, having nothing left to it 
but to die and be forever dismissed from our 
national history. 

FAILURE OF REPUBLICAN rAR;jY. 

In this trial the Republican party completely 
failed. It could do nothing but strike, when to> 
strike was no longer necessary, or wise, or hu- 
mane, or Christian ; and when to contiime to 
strike was ruin to all the reviving commerce and 
reviving industries of the victorious North, and 
inflicted anew upon an exhausted people the 
burdens of war, after war was ended. 

It could have won into alliance with it the ma- 
joritj' of the white race of the South ; and thus 
have acquired the means of carrying on govern-- 
ment there, on the principle and through the 



methods of our American system of government. I by these means to sccnre itself a2:ain8t a reac- 
It is the peculiar and crowning glory of that " - • ■ ■■ .-^^ 

system, that it is so full of mutual dependencies, 
between the State and Federal machineries and 
the different parts of each, and involves so much 
of the voluntary action of the people in every 
locality, that two-thirds of the States cannot gov- 
ern one-third, witliout a large co-operation from 
the people of that third. The necessity of this 
co-operation limits the oppression which can be 
exercised against a local minority. The seeking 
of that co-operation informs the majority, and 
brings it into relations with the minority. In 
trying to acquire the means to govern, the ma- 
jority become qualified to govern. Our American 
system of government was not invented. It 
grew. It is wiser and bett r than anything 
which was ever invented. It grew up among 
a people whose government was everywhere car- 
ried on by the consent of the governed ; and 
voluntary aid and general co-operation were as- 
sumed in all its growth, and became necessary 
conditions to its action. It is not a convenient 
instrument for tyranny. 

THROUOn 8EIJ-ISHXKS3 AND INCAPACTTT. 

The Republican party, finding no difficulty 
outside of itself, found a difficulty in itself which 
was unsurmountable. It could not change its 
own nature. If it could have generated one lead- 
er capable of the generous ambition of paciiicat- 
ing the country and founding a permanent as- 
ceudanc'y on the ultimate public opinion of the 
whole country, it might have lived. Even a 
large demagogue might have been a national ben- 
efaction, iiut two hundred sbiall demagogues — 
not one of them able to extend his vision bv?yond 
the horizon of one congressional disti-ict — nor 
having much moral sway over the opinion of his 
constituency — found it easier and safer to stimu- 
late the hatreds left by the war and the provin- 
cial passions which led to the war, than to act 
with the wise moderation of a coiuprehensive 
statesman or even the prudent liberality of a 
conqueror, 

IT RESOLVES TO ESTABLISH NEGRO SUPREMACr. 

The Republican party recoiled for awhile on the 
fatal brink of the policy on which it at last em- 
barked. It had not the courage to conciliate by 
magnanimity, and to fouljd its alliances and 
its hopes of success upon the better qualities 
of human nature. It totally abandoned all rela- 
tions to the white race of the ten States. It 
resolved to make the black race the governing 
power in those States ; and by means of them 
to bring into Congress twenty senators and fifty 
representatives — practically appointed by itself 
in Washington. 

It is evident that the internal government of 
those States was not the main object of this des- 
perate expedient. The State organizations had 
been comparatively neglected. It was only 
through new State organizations, and new elec- 
toral bodies, that the twenty senators and fifty 
representatives could be secured to the Repub- 
lican party, after it refused to trust to pacification. 

THE OBJECT TO RULE THE NORTH. 

The effect of a gain to the Republican party 
of twenty senators and fifty representatives 
ia to streagthen its hold on the federal govern- 
ment against the people of the North. Nor is 
there the slightest doubt that the paramount 
object and motive of the Republican party ig 



tion of opinion adverse to it in our great populous 
northern commonwealths. The effect of is 
system and its own real purpose is to estab- 
lish a domination over us of the northern States, 

REC0^^3TRUCTI0N BY THE SWORD. 

"When the Republican party resolved to es- 
tablish negro supremacy in the ten States in or- 
der to gain to itself the representation of those 
States ill Congress, it had to begin by governing 
the people of those States bj'' the sword. The 
four millions and a half of whites composed the 
electoral bodies. If they were to be put under 
the supremacy of the three millions of negroes, 
and twenty senators and fifty representatives 
were to be obtained through these three mil- 
lions of negroes, it was necessary to obliterate 
every vestige of local authority, whether it had 
existed before the rebellion or been instituted 
since by Mr. Lincoln or by the people. A bay- 
onet had to be set to supervise and control every 
local organization. The military dictatorship 
had to be extended to the remotest ramifications 
of human society. That was the fir.it necessity. 

NEG^O SUPREMACY. 

The next was the creation of now electoral 
bodies for those ten States; in which, by exclu- 
sions, by disfranchisements and proscriptions, 
by control over registration, by applying test 
oaths operating retrospectively and prospect- 
ively, by intimidation, andjjj' every form of in- 
fluence, three millions of negroes are made to 
predominate over four and a half millions of 
whites. These three millions of negroes — three- 
fourths of the adult male portion of whom are 
field hands, who have been worked in gangs on 
the plantations, and are immeasurably inferior to 
the free blacks whom we know in the North — 
who have never had even the education which 
might be acquired in the support of themselves 
or in the conduct of any business, and who, of 
all their race, have made the least advance frOiii 
the original barbarism of their ancestors — have 
been organized in compact masses to form the 
ruling power in these ten States. They have 
been disassociated from their natural relations to 
the intelligence, humanity, virtue, and piety of 
the white race ; set up in complete antagonis.u 
to the whole white race, for the purpose of being 
put over the white race ; and for the purpose of 
being fitted to act with unity and become com- 
pletely impervious to the influence of superior 
iatellect and superior moral and social power in 
the communities of which they form a part/ 

Of course, such a process has repelled, with 
inconsiderable exceptions, the entire white race 
in the ten States. It has repelled the moderate 
portion who had reluctantly yielded to secession. 
It has repelled those who had remained unionists. 
The first fruit of the Republican policy is the 
complete separation of the two races, and to 
some exteut their antagonism. 

THE MEANS. 

How, my fellow-citizens, has this work been 
accomplished, and at whbse cost ? 

The main instruments have been the Freed- 
man's Bureau and the Army of the United States. 

The Frcedman's Bureau is parily an eleemos- 
ynary establishment, which dispenses alms to 
the liberated slaves and assumes to be their 
friend and protector. It is, to a large extent, a 
job, for its dependents and their speculative as- 
sociates. But, in its principal character, it ia 



10 



% political machine to organize and manage the 
three millions of negroes. 

It3 cost, as reported by itself, to the public 
treasury, for the last two years, is about ten 
millions of dollars. 

The army is used to overawe the ■white race, 
and sometimes to work and sometimes to shelter 
the working of the political system which goes 
on under the military governments of the ten 
States. 

Tira COST. 

You have seen telegrams announcing the rc- 
■dnction of the army expenses. Wl>ea I was in 
Washington week before last, I took some pains 
to ascertain the truth. I am able to inform you, 
from authentic data, that the monthly payments 
at the treasury, for army expenses, up to the be- 
ginning of the present montli, exceed twelve 
millions. I assert that they are now, — to-day, — 
running at the rate of one hundred and fifty mil- 
lions per annum. They have not been less, but 
probably more, for the two years past. This does 
not include pensions, which are thirty -six mil- 
lions more. 

Remember that it is excessive taxation which 
crushes the industrious masses' in European mon- 
archies and despotisms ; and that this taxation is 
mainly caused by their military establishments, 
kept up by the ambitions of their rulers, by their 
mutual jealousies, and by the fears which tyriints 
entertain of th(?!r own peoples. 

Remember that oifr wise ancestors warned us 
against standing armies and all those false sys- 
tems of government which reqi;ire standing ar- 
raiea. They formed tiic Union of the States that 
we might be free from the jealousies of co-termi- 
nous countries, which have been the usual pretext 
of tyrants for maintaining costly military estab- 
lishments. They founded that union on the prin- 
ciple of local self-government, — to be everywhere 
carried on by the voluntary co-operation of the 
governed. They did not intend that one part of 
our country should govern another part, as Eu- 
ropean tyrants govern their subjects. Rebellion, 
M"hich for a time disturbed this beneficent system, 
is conquered. But we do not return to govern- 
ment on the principles of our fathers. The south- 
ern people are willing and anxious to do so. We 
refuse. See how the refusal brings upon us the 
calamities foretold by the prophetic statesmen 
and patriots of 1776 and 1787. Compare the army 
expenses of free America with those of the mili- 
tary powers of Europe. 

Great Britain, which encircles the globe with 
her riiilitary posts, and rules in dependent provin- 
ces one hundred and fifty millions of subjects, ex- 
pended for her armies, including pensions, in 
1866-7, about 14,340,000 pounds, and in 1867-8, 
about 14,752,000 pounds, or about seventy-two 
millions of dollars a j'ear. 

France, which stands at the head of the mili- 
tary powers of Europe, expendcl for her army, as 
the average of seven years officially reported, 
about eiglity-six millions of dollars. 

Prussia, whicli has just consolidated under her 
dominion tlie new Germanic empire, expended 
on her army, in 1867, about twenty -nine millions 
of dollars. And we, free America, wlio have of- 
fered up the lives of two-tliirds of a million of our 
youth, and more tlian three tliousand millions of 
dollars to restore the Union and escape the neces- 
sity and the pretexts for such military establish- 
ments, — after our abject ought to be completely 
accomplished, find ourselves subjected to more 



than fifteen millions a month,-;-more than half a 
million a day, — about one hundred and eighty-.six 
millii)ns a year for army expenses and pensions, 
as two items of the cost of our government. 
Now, I assert two facts: 

First. The main employment of the anny is 
in occupying the Southern States. 

Secondly. If the Union were fully restored, the 
army expimses can be, and ought to be reduced 
100 or 125 millions a year. The average for th.e 
ten years prior to the rebellion, was about 15 mil- 
lions ; and our experience in raising volunteers 
shows that a large standing army is unnecessary. 
You may safely count that reconstruction car- 
ried on by these military governments costs you 
at least one hundred m llions a year in army ex- 
penses, unnecessary for any other purpose. To 
carry on the experiment of negro supremacy in 
the ten States for two j'ears; to bring in twenty 
senators and fifty representatives, — deputies of 
the three millions of liberated slaves, allies and 
instruments of the party objects of the Republi- 
cans, will cost you two hundred millions of dol- 
lars in direct army expenses. How much more 
in other expensos, created or permitted to con- 
tinue — how much in future years, I can only con- 
jecture. I venture to predict that five hundred 
millions will not consummate the system. 

These immense sums have to be wrung from 
the people in taxes which cost those who pay 
them much more than- the amount thus expended ; 
at a time when the illusions of paper money are 
passing away, and the country discovers itself ex- 
hausted and impoverished by war ; when no com- 
merce is profitable, and nearly all manufactures 
are carried on at a loss; when labor is scantily 
employed, and the cost of livirig is high ; when 
taxation closely approaches to the whole net 
income of all capital and all labor in the country ; 
and, when this condition is daily growing worse, 
and can only be alleviated by reducing expenses, 
rtinitting taxes, liberating trade and industry, 
and restoring them to their natural courses. 

8ENAT0EIAI, REl'EESENTATION. 

If those three millions of negroes elect 
twenty senators and fifty representatives, they 
wid have ten times as much pjwer in the 
Senate of tiie United States as the four millions 
of whites in the State^of New York. On every 
question which concerns the commercial metro- 
polis—every question of trade, of finance, of 
currency, of revenue, and of taxation, these 
three millions of liberated African slaves will 
count ten times as much in the Senate as four 
millions of New Yorkers. One freedinan will 
counterbalance thirteen white citizens of the Em- 
pire State. These three millions of blacks will 
count tea times as much as three millions of 
wliite people in Pennsylvania; ten times as much 
as two and a half millions in Ohio ; ten times as 
much as two and a quarter or two and a half mil- 
lions in Illinois ; ten times as much as one million 
and a half in Indiana. These three millions of 
blacks will have twice the representation iu 
the Senate, which will be possessed by the five 
great commonwealths — New York, Pennsylvania, 
Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois — embracing thirteen 
and a half millions of our people. 

USURPATIOXS OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTT. 

Let me not be told that this enormous wrong 
is nothing more than an original defect of the 
Constitution. I answer that it derives most of 



11 



\iB evil and its (Linger fi-om the usurpations of 
tlie Republican party. 

WORK A PRAOTIOAI, REVOLUTION. 

"We have now reached a period wlien every- 
thing valuable in the Constitution and in the 
government as formed by our fathers is brought 
into peril. Men's minds are unsettled by the 
civil strifes throu;i,h v/hich wo have passed. The 
body of traditionary ideas which limited the 
struggles of parties within narrow and fixed 
boundaries is broken up. A temporary party 
majority, having complete sway over the leg- 
islative bodies, discpds all standards, — whether 
embodied in laws, constitutions, or in elementary 
and organic principles of free government ; 
acts its own pleasure as absolutely as if it were 
a revolutionary convention; and deems every- 
thing legitimate, which can serve its party aims. 

Changes are dared and attempted by it, with 
a success which, I trust, is but temporary — 
changes which revolutionize the whola nature of 
our government: 

IN SUFFRAGE. 

First. If there be anything fundamental in 
government or in human society, it is the ques- 
tion, what elements shall compose the electoral 
bodies from which emanate all the governing 
powers. The Constitution left the State.=i with 
exclusive power over the suffrage ; and the States 
have always defined and protected the suffrage 
from change b}' their fundamental laws. Con- 
press now usurps control over the whole subject 
in the ten States ; and creates negro constitu- 
encies, and vests them with nearly a third of 
the whole representation in the Senate, and 
Dearly a quarier of the whole representation in 
the House. The leaders of the Republican par- 
ty also claim the power by c ;ngressional act to 
regulate the suffrage in the loj-al States : and, 
without the consent of the people of those States, 
to alter their constitutions, and involve them 
in a political partnership with inferior races. 

IN TIIE REPRESENTATION. 

Secondly/. Congress, by the methods and means 
I have traced, usurps control over the repre- 
sentation in the two branches of the national 
leo-islature, and packs thoie bodies with dele- 
gates, admitting or rejecting for party ends, 
and at length attempting to create a permanent 
majority by deputies from negro constituencies 
formed for that purpose. 

IN AESORBINQ THE STATES. 

Thirdly. Congress has not only fettered the 
trade and industries of the country for the benefit 
of special interests and classes, but it has ab- 
sorbed many powers and functions of the State 
governments which are, in the words of Mr. Jef- 
ferson's celebrated inaugural, " the most competent 
adiiiinistratinns for our domedlc concerns,the surest 

BULWARK AGAINST ANTI-REPUBUCAN TENDENCIES;" 

and it is rapidly centralizing all our political 
institutions. 

IN OR'JSIU.Va THE CO-ORDINATE DEPARTMENTS. 

Fnurlhty. Congress is systematically breaking 
down all the divisions of power between the co- 
ordinate departments of the Federal Govern- 
ment, which the Constitution established, and 
whicli have alwaj'^.been considered as essential 
to the very existence of constitutional represent- 
ative government. 

The universal conviction of all our revered 
statesmen and patriots, ia, in the language of 



Mr. jKFifERsoN, that "the concentration of legislw- 
tive, executive and judicial powers in the same hands 
is precisely the definition of despotic (government." 
" An ELECTIVE DESPOTISM," Said he, " was not the 
government we fought for, but one which should 
not only be founded on free principles, but in 
which the powers of government should be so 
divided among several bodies of magistracy, as 
that no one could transcend their legal limits 
witliout being effectually checked and restrained 
by the others." 

THE EXECUTIVE. 

In violation of these principles, Congress has 
stripped the President of his constitutional pow- 
ers over his subordinates in the executive func- 
tion, — and even over his own confidential ad- 
visers ; and vested these powers in the Senate. 
It is now exercising the power of removing from 
office the President elected by the people, and 
appointing another in his jilace; under the form 
of a trial, but without the pretence of actual 
crime, or anything more than & mere difference 
of opinion. 

THE JUDICIARY. 

It has menaced the Judiciary; at one time 
proposing to create by law an incapacity in the 
Supreme Court to act by a majority, in any case 
where it should disagree with Congress ; at an- 
other time, proi)Osing to divest that tribunal of 
jurisdiction exercised by it from the foundation of 
the government to decide between an ordinary law 
and the Constitution, which is tlie fundamental 
and supreme law. There is reason to believe also 
that a plan has been matured to overthrow the 
Court by the creation of new judges to make a 
majority more subservient to Congress, than the 
judges appointed by Mr. Lincoln are found to be. 

ELECTIVE DESPOTISM. 

These changes are organic. They would rev- 
olutionize the very nature of the government. 
They would alter every important part of its 
structure on which its authors relied to secure 
good laws and good administration, and to pre- 
serve civil liberty. They would convert it into 
an ELECTIVE DESPOTISM. The chan^-e could not 
by possibility stop at that stage. 

IMPERIALISM. 

I avow the con\dction, founded on all history 
and on the concurring judgment of all our great 
statesmen and i)atriot3, that such a system, if 
continued, would pass into imperialism. I feel 
not less certain that the destruction of all local 
self-government in a country so extensive as ours, 
and embracing such elements of diversity in hab- 
its, manners, opinions and interests, and the ex- 
ercise by a single, centralized authority of all the 
powers of society over so vast a region and over 
such populations, would entail upon us an indefi- 
nite series of civil commotions, and repeat here 
the v;orst crimes and worst calamities of history. 

It is time for the people to stay these destruc- 
tive tendencies, and to declare that the reaction 
from secession towards centralism shall not ef- 
fect the ruin which secession could not diructly 
accomplish. 

SENATORIAL OLIGARCnV. 

Coming back now to the subject of the sena- 
torial representation, I ask you to consider how 
different it is, and how vastlj^ more inrportant 
when viewed in the light of such changes in the 
nature and structure of our Government. 

The inequality of the representation of the peo 



12 



pie in the Senate was conceded, as a compromise, 
on the surrender of State independence and for 
tlie protection of State rights. When State 
rio;hts are obliterated from our system, all the 
original reasons for such inequality will have 
disappeared. When all local selS-governnjents 
give way to centralism, that inequality will be- 
come intolerable. The Senate as a mere clieck- 
ing body on the House and on the Executive, in 
a federal govei'nment, itself exercising but lim- 
ited powers, is one tliiug. The Senate absorbing 
— in common with the House — all the powers of 
the States, all the powers of the Judiciary, and 
many of the powers of the Executive, and grasp- 
ing, for itself alone, control over all the olhcers 
who carry on the executive machinery, over tlie 
army, and over the agencies which collect and 
disburse live hundi-ed millions a year — is a veiy 
different thing. The long tenure and indirect 
election of the senators, enables that body to hold 
power for a while agamst the people. If mem- 
bers are admitted or rejected to perpetuate a 
party majority — if new States are formed, with 
small populations, for that ]jurpose — if twenty 
nominees of the three millions of emancipated 
slaves are brought in, the body will be for a jie- 
riod practically self-elective. If we are to be 
governed by a senatorial oligarchy, the people of 
the great populous States which occupy the vast 
region stretching from the Hudson to the Missis- 
sippi will ask — WHO are to cuoose the ouGAEcns ? 

USURPATION OF' CONTROL OVER SUFFRAGE IN THE 
STATES. 

I recur for a moment to the claim made by the 
leaders of the Republican party that Congress has 
power to alter the suffrage within the iiorthern 
States as well as the Southern ; in the loyal as 
well as the rebellious couiniunities. Mr. Thad- 
DEus Stevens and Mi". Charles Sujiner have pub- 
licly claimed this power. The Tribune has claimed 
it. Mr. Speaker Colfax has asserted it, and pro- 

Eosed to apply it to Kentucky, Maryland and 
•elaware. 

ITS OBJECTS. 

Their objects and motives are disclosed. 

The Trihi^ie, on the 16th of October last, ex- 
claimed to its hesitating followers: 

•' For the Republicans are bound to go under 
(thank God) if they don't enfranchise the blacks." 

Mr. Sumner, in a letter to the editor of the In- 
dependent, avowed the purpose and the motive : 

" Senate Chamber, 20th April, 1867. 
" My Dear Sir : — You wish to have the North 
' reconstructed,' so at least that it shall cease to 
deny the elective franchise on account of color. 
But you postpone the day by insisting on the pre- 
liminary of a constitutional ameudmeut. I know 
your vows to the good cause; but ask you to 
make liaste. We caimot wait * * * 

This question must be settled without delay. In 
other words, it must be settled before the Presi- 
dcnllal election, which is at hand. Our colored 
fellow-citizens at tiie South are already voters. 
They will vote at the Presidential election. But 
why should they vote at the Soutli and not at the 
Kortii? The rule of justice is the same for both. 
' Their votes are needed at the North as well as the 
South. There are Northern States where their 
votes CAn make the good cause safe beyond ques- 
tion. 

' " Tliere are other States where their votes will 
be like the last prepofiderant weight in the 
nicely-balanced scales. Let our colored fellow- 



citizens vote in Maryland, and that State, now so 
severely tried will be fixed for human riglits for- 
ever. Let them vote in Pennsylvania, and you 
Mill give more than 20,000 votes to the Repub- 
lican cause. Let them vote in New York, and 
the scales which hang so doubtfully will incline 
to the Republican cause. It will be the same in 
Connecticut. * * * Enfranchise- 

ment, which is the corollary and complement of 
emancipation, nmat be a nntiojial act also proceed- 
inri from the National Government and applicable 
to all the States." 

its conseqlikces. 
Hitherto the great right of the citizen to a 
voice in choosing his rulers has been safely en- 
trenched in the constitutions of the several States. 
No legislative power in the land, Federal or 
State, could touch it. No temporary political as- 
cendancy, no fluctuation of parties, could endan- 
ger it. The State constitution could be changed 
only through slow processes, imposing delays, in- 
suring deliberation, and generally requiring sev- 
eral submissions to a vote of the people. To 
effect a change throughout the Union would 
requira that these processes be carried through 
in each State separately. But once abdicate this 
rightful authority of the people of the several 
States, acting in their organic capacity ; once al- 
low Congress to usurp jurisdiction over the 
si'ffrage of the people of the States ; once admit 
that this fundamental right may be changed by 
a mere enactment of Congress, without submis- 
sion to a vote of the people, and no man in any 
State can tell how soon his vote may be rendered 
worthless, or how soon it may be taken from him. 
Mr. SuiiNEU avows that his object is to control 
the next Presidential election. Adopt his theory ; 
establish tJie precedent; accustom the people to 
acquiesce in the usurpiatiou, and you wdl have 
a congressional majority changing the suffrage 
whenever it may be a convenient means of keep- 
ing themselves in power. An ambitious President, 
with a subservient majority in Congress; in pos- 
session of the machinery of the Federal Gov- 
ernment; our political system centralized under 
the popular reaction against the heresy of seces- 
sion, until the moral force of the States to re- 
strain is gone; and a supreme control over the 
suffrage is all that is wanting to complete and 
consummate a practical revolution iu our gov- 
ernment. Your future masters may indulge you 
a wliile in the forms of election, if the^' be al- 
lowed to make over the constituent bodies as 
often and as much as they please, letting in and 
shutting out voter.s, to maintain their ascend- 
ancy. An addition of nine hundred and thirty- 
two thousand negroes, most of them emanci- 
pated slaves, without any of the training or 
traditions, or aspirations of freemen; who would 
as soon vote to make their favorite an emperor aa 
to make him a president, will be a convenient ac- 
cessory. And when their representatives get into 
power, who can doubt that they are capable of 
being made facile instruments of excluding op- 
ponents as well as of admitting allies. How do 
you think Senator Brownlow and his twent}' as- 
sociates would vote on a bill to regulate the suf- 
li-age by admitting negroes in New York, Penn- 
sylvania, Ohio, Indiana, or lllmois ? How would 
they vote on a bill to regulate the suffrage by 
excluding Irishmen or Germans? Do you think 
they would not assert the superior rights of the 
negroes born in this country o er Ibreigners? 



13 



Is it not at least prudent for all who possess the 
suffrage to keep the regulation of it where it now 
js — in the constitutions of the several States ? 

WITH WHOM SHALL WE SOARE SELF-GOVERNMENT? 

One other topic, and I have done: Our civil 
and social polity, which is rapidly extending over 
the unoccupied portions of this continent, is 
peculiar. The ideal to which it is approximating 
is that of a system of commonwealths in which 
all are equals before the law, and aU adult males 
exercise the suffrage. Our wise ancestors warned 
us that this grand experiment in self-government 
would turn on the intelligence and virtue of 
the people ; and that our efforts to educate and 
elevate must be commensurate with our diffusion 
of political rights and political power. It is a 
great partnersliip in self-government. Every 
man jields a share in the government over him- 
self to ever}'^ other man, and acquires a share in 
the government over that other man. But like a 
partnership in business, or by marriage in the 
family, the important question is, with whom shall 
we enter into so intimate and complex a relation. 
The American people have always answered that 
question, by founOlng tue State upon the family. 

Whatever element could be absorbed into the 
■ homogeneous mass, indistinguishable as a drop of 
water in the ocean ; whatever element could be 
admitted into the family, which is the basis of 
societj', has been admitted into the State. What- 
ever element could never enter the family, and 
could only exist in society as a caste, separate and 
incapable of amalgamation with the mass, has 
been refused admission into the State as a part of 
its electoral or governing body. That has been 
the principle. Instances of deviation have hap- 
pened only where the element was so inconsider- 
able as to deprive the question of all importance. 

We have everywhere hitherto refused to enter 
into a partnership in self-government with inferior 
■or with mixed races. 

WITH MEXICANS ? 

I remember that twenty-one years ago there 
eeeraed to be danger that the spirit of territorial 
extension would lead some of the Democratic 
party to favor the absorption of all of Mexico and 
the incorporation of the populated portions of 
that country into our system. For the purpose of 
checking that tendency, a declaration was pre- 
pared b}' a great statesman of that daj', and was 
made public, to the effect that to hold Mexico as 
a province wauld be contrary to the principles 
of our institutions, and would tend to their sub- 
version ; and that the destinies of our great ex- 
periment in self-government could not be safely 
committed to the issue of a partnership in it with 
the six millions of the mixeil races which formed 
three-quarters ^f the population of Mexico. I 
may add that, being consulted, I concurred in 
the measure. 

WITH CmSESK? 

Professor Fawcett, in his recent work on poli- 
tical economy, predicts that immense swarms will 
yet come to our Pacific possessions from the 
countless millions of the Chinese. Could we ac- 
cept into politieal partnership with us four and 
a half millions of thcra ?. 

WITH INDIANS? 

The Indians were here before us, and before 
the importations of the Africans. If four and a 
half nuhious of Indians stUl existed here, with 



nine hundred and thirty -two thousand males over 
twenty-one years of age, would any man seriously 
propose to enter into a partnership in self-govern- 
ment with them ? 

WITH AFRICANS? 

In 1860, the slaves amounted to nearly four 
millions, and the free colored to nearly Jmlf a 
million. The males over twenty -one years of age, 
of both classes, were about seven hundred and 
eiglit thousand in the ten States, and about two 
hundred and twenty-four thousand in the other 
States ; making an aggregate of nine hundred and 
thirt^'-two thousand. 

THE GREAT ELTIOPEAN IMMIGRATION. 

Tlie immigrants, who have contributed so much 
to swell the population of our northern States, 
spring from the same parent stocks with our- 
selves. They come to rejoin their kindred. 
Races have a growth and culture as well as in- 
dividuals. What a race has been many centuries 
in accumulating, is often appropriated and devel- 
oped in an individua. life, in the ascent from the 
humblest origin to the higiiest attainments of the 
species. Our accessions are drawn from races 
which have lived under essentially the same cli- 
mactic inlluences with ourselves — which have at- 
tained the highest civilization — and made tlie 
largest progress in the arts and industries of man- 
kind. They are attracted here by their aspira- 
tions for civil liberty or for tlie improvement of 
their personal condition , and every aspiration 
ennobles. They are well represented in all our 
occupations which call for intellect and culture; 
and even the portion which come to fill the ranks 
of raw labor made vacant by the ascent to more 
skilled and more remunerative employments 
which our universal education opens to all, show 
a capacity to quickly foUow in the noble compe- 
tition for improvement. The theme is important 
and interesting, but I can not now touch so great 
a subject. I intended merely to call attention to 
the one primary fact. 

These immigrants enter the American family, 
without the slightest repugnance on either side 
which can be ascribed to diii'erences of race. All 
the various motives of clioice, which operate be- 
tween individuals of the same race exist. Eut 
there is no repulsion of races. They commingle 
in the family. I cannot discuss what the effect 
will be upon our future population. The opinion 
of pliysiologista seems to be that it ought to form 
a higher type of mankind. In ilassachusetts it 
appears to be the stay of the population from a 
decline. In 1865, while the American population 
was 79 per cent., tlie children of American pa- 
rents were but 45 per cent. ; and of mixed parent- 
age 8 per cent. For every five marriages be- 
tween Americans, there was one between an 
American and a foreign-born person ; and of 
these mixed marriages nearly three-lifths were 
foreign males with American brides. The foreign- 
born residents of Massachusetts are chiefly Irish. 
The secretary of tlie Commonwealth, in his last 
statistical report, drily observes : " The domestic- 
ation of foreign agricultural laborers in the hornet 
of American farmers may be the cause of this." 

THE SOCIAL ORGANISM. 

In our body politic, as in the human system, 
what canbe digested and assimilated is nutrition; 
it is the source of health and life. What remains 
incapable of being digested and assimilated can 



14 



be only an element of disease and death. The 
question in respect to it is always this: — Whether 
the vital forces are strong enough to prevail over 
it, and excrete it from the system. 

One might carry this analogy fiirlher. In 1700, 
the group of States north of Mason aud Dixon's 
line, and the group of States south, had each a 
population rather less than 2,000,000. They dif- 
fered a little more than 7,000. 

nQIIGa.\TI0N OVERTHREW SLAVERY. 

After careful examination, I am satisfied that 
all the superiority -which the North gained in 
population in the seventy years between 1790 and 
1860 may be traced to iminigrjition. 

I have ever felt tl>e greatest interest in the 
form of society in which I was boVn, and been 
ready to defend and protect it. As soon as the 
great development of immigration, which began 
twenty-one years ago, was apparent as an endur- 
ing force, I felt that we of the North could safely 
trust to it all questions between tlie rival systems 
of industry and society which existed in our coun- 
try, and that the highest statesmanship was to 
keep the j^eace between the sections until both 
should see that a power greater than eitlicr had 
determined the ultimate solution of every such 
controversy. 

AND GAVE SUCCESS TO TUE NORTH IN THE WAR. 

The ascendency of the North in the govern- 
ment, its triumpli in' the war, are both due to the 
Bame cause. Of the immigrants who have come 
here within forty years, from 1820 to 1860,41 1-2 
per cent, were males between the ages of 15 aud 
40, while but twenty-one and a half per cent, of our 
own white population in 1860 was of the sanie 
class. In 21 years, from Jan. 1, 1847, to Jan. 1, 
1868, two millions and a third of males between 
15 and 40 liave been added to our strength, or 
about as much as are contained in eleven and a 
half millions of our population. 

If the South had succeeded in establishing a 
separate government, it must still have confronted 
the same difficulty, and must, by exclusion, have 
dwarfed itself by our side into impotcnc}', or 
within fifty years have reproduced the same con- 
flict witliin Its own boundaries. 

Whetlier the renovation of the South must be 
looked for from the same source, in a constant 
enlargement of the proportion of the whites, — with 
a diminished rate of natural increase for the 
blacks, and a continued drift of them toward the 
tropics, is a speculation on which I will not now 
ent.er. 

But of one thing we may be assured. The ad- 
mission of the inferior races into our political sys- 
tem is simply a question of quantity. As a sepa- 
rate people, I have heard no man profess to 
believe that they could maintain such a govern- 
ment as ours. There is no experience to warrant 
such an expectation. The experiment is a failure 
in Mexico. It is a failure everywhere in South 
America. The question recurs, — how much of so 
evil a ililution we can afford ? 

The presence of the race here raises the ques- 
tion; it creates a diflicult problem, wiiich ought 
to be dealt with in a spirit of liberal humanity, 
and of wise statesmanship. 

ALIE.NAGE NOT MAI#Ly A QUESTION OF BmTH. 

But there are other things besides the rights 
and interests of the blacks to be considered ; 
:ithQr rii^bts ana interests to be consulted. Theie 



is an alienage more incurable than the alienage 
of birth. Is the descendant who conies hore now 
of a neighbor or a relative of my ancestor who 
came here almost two and a half centuries ago, 
less to me than the descendant of a barbarian 
from Africa who came to South Carolina by an act 
which we now stigmatize and punish as piracy V 

Our laws require for the immigrant of our 
o^vn blood, who comes from the most highly civ- 
ilized nations of Europe, and of a race perfecte4 
by many centuries of culture, — however great 
may be his personal endowments, — a novitiate of 
five years. The llepublicans require none for the 
emancipated slaves. The suffrage amendment 
adopted by the Republican majoritj' of our Con- 
stitutional Convention, enables every one of the 
920,000 now outside of this State to come here, 
and on a year's residence, exercise the sufl'rage 
and become eligible to all our oflicial trusts. It 
invites them to come. The Republicans were not 
content to confine these privileges to sucli as are 
now residents here, — or to such as were born here, 
or such as have already acquired the suffrage. 
They extended the offer to the whole class ; and 
they voted down a proposition, to impose upon 
such as might come into the State, a novitiate 
analogous to that which is imposed on immigrauta, 
Theydid this while inventing and applj-ing every 
ingenious obstruction to tlie exercise of the suf- 
frage by the adopted citizen aud by the wMte; 
race generally'. 

Probably no large number will come ; but that 
cannot be certainly foreseen. At any rate, it is 
not the best reason for making a rule, that it will 
probably be inoperative ; but, if it were to be 
operative, could not be endured. As a judgment 
on the question of the relative fitness of the 
classes, — which it theoretically is, — it i3 absurd 
and unjust. 



ALIENAGE A QUESTION OF 

I deny that the mere 
important than the natur 
A man born in the land 
become, in every essential 
here almost immediately, 
an African may be, after 
still an alien. 



CHARAOTER AFFINITT. 

place of birth is more 
e of tlie man himself. 
of our ancestors may 
characteristic, a native 
A man descended from 
the lapse of centuries. 



THE QUESTION OF EIGHTS. 

If a Mississippi plantation hand has a ri<jht to 
demand of every New Yorker that the two should 
divide equally the government of both, I should 
like to be instructed as to the origin and nature of 
that right. Is it a constitutional right? I answer 
that the Constitution leaves the whole matter to 
the States. Is it a natural right ? I ask whether 
he has also a natural right to thirteen times aa 
much voice in the Senate as a New Yorker. 

Has he likewise a "natural right" that the 
State governments be stripped of their constitu- 
tional authorities — and the federal executive and 
the federal judiciary — cnr] th;)t aC v^ie omvor') of 
human society on this continent b^ concent r-ilc'l 
in Congress, and a disproportionate share of tlioin 
in the Senate? Has he a natural right that his 
representation in that body (thirteeu times that 
of a New Yorker) should become a rei)resenta- 
tion, so disproportioned, in all the governing pow- 
ers of our country ? 

Jliglit not the New Yorker ask that he wai^ * 
little, and have the readjustments on both b\iUis 
take place at the same time — at least so far that 
the natui-al right of the Mississippi plantation- 



15 



hand should not swallow up all the natural rights 
of the New Yorker ? 

I demand to know a little further of the quality 
of this natural riglit. How did this Jlississippi 
plantation-liand acquire, as against this New 
Yorker, a natural right to the suflrage denied to 
this New Yorker's wife or to his son, il' under 
twenty-one ? 

il have said that the presence of the race here 
creates a problem which ought to be considered 
wisely and humanelj\ But does it create an ab- 
solute right to the suffrage and to eligibility to 
official trusts ? The race is not here by our act. 
This New Yorker, whose rights and interests are 
so deeply concerned, did not bring the African 
her^ Let us be just. Neither did the southern 
people. That presence here is the fatal fruit of 
the rapacity of the English government in a for- 
mer age, against the persistent remonstrances of 
Virginia, which was then the South. 

I deny that the mere fact of that presence 
here creates such absolute and unlimited rights 
as are claimed for it, to a partnership in stif- 
government — against us who are in no manner 
responsible for that presence. I deny that it di- 
vests us of the right to exercise a reasonable pre- 
caution for our own safety. I especially deny 
that it gives them a right to rule us, lest per- 
chance we may abuse our jwwer over them. 

)J say there are other rights and interests to be 
consulted besides those of the emancipated slaves. 
The rights and interests of that class are entitled 
to thoughtful care; and no man would rejoice 
more than mj'self to see them advance in the 
scale of humanity. But I think the system adopt- 
ed by the Republicans is a great mistake even 
for the welfare of that class. They live in the 
midst of the white race in their own localities. 
They must ultimately need good relations with 
the commuuit}' of which they are a part. "What 
can be done for them must at last be done through 
the white race in their localities, which can under- 
stand and manage the complicated relations of 
their condition better than anybody else. The 
North can not. The Federal Government can not. 
That tlie white race would not have fultilled this 
trust, iT allowed, with justice and humanity, in 
the main, there is no ground to dispute but pre- 
judice and hatred. At any rate, no machinery 
can long be maintained by jis to supervise such 
relations. 

- To put the freedmen in supremacy over the white 
race in ten States, in order to protect the inter- 
ests of the freedman, is an absurdity inferior on- 
ly to the next expedient, of giving them a- prac- 
tical domination in the Federal Government, over 
the whole North, in order to perfect and consum- 
mate that protection. 

•,' IHE LATE "slave POWEtt." 

The Republicans have educated our people to 
overthrow what they called the " Slave Power." 
Analyze it. What was it? It was the influence 
which 350,000 heads of families, embracing 
2,000,000 of the wliite race, owning slaves, and 
living intermingled with 6,000,000 of other 
whites not owning slaves, were capable of exer- 
cising, over public opinion, and thereby upon 
the government. It gave us Washington, Jeffer- 
son, Madison, Munroe, Jackson, Marshall, Clay, 
and hosts of other statesmen and patriots ; and 
whatever influence could be exercised by it was 
only through the consent of millions of civilized 
people of our race. 



Tlie struggle to overthrow it has cost tlie whole 
country a million of lives, and four thousand mil- 
lions of dollars. 

And now what is it proposed to the people of 
tlie gi-eat populous commonwealths of the North 
to accept in exciiange, and as the recompense for 
such immense sacrUices 'i 

THE COMIXa NEGRO POWER. 

The political power of the States where slavery 
once existed will remain, and after the next cen- 
sus will be enlarged by tlie representation of all, 
instead of threc-liftlis of the former slaves. That 
power in the ton States, if the system of the Re- 
publicans shall prevail and continue, — at -any 
rate for the next few years, which involve pecu- 
liarly all the business interests of the country, — 
is to be wielded by a few hundred adventurers, 
through the three millions of emancipated slaves. 
And the centralization of our governmental au- 
thorities, will cause it to act vastly more upon all 
our interests. It will give us Hunnicut for Wash- 
ington, Underwood for Jefferson, and Brownlow 
for Jackson. Every element of this power would 
be infei'ior in morality and intelligence to the one 
which has been overthrown ; and its influence 
upon our welfare would be immensely greater. 

Will the people of our great Northern States 
accept a domination of such a " negro power," 
erected on the ruins of such a " slave power " ? 

CONCLUSION. 

I do not ask what will be the consequences on 
the white race of ten States; whether the white 
race -will be expelled ; I do not ask what will be 
the effects upon our industrial or commercial in- 
terests, or on the civilization of a portion of our 
country three and half times as large as the 
French empire. 

If the authors of this policy teU you that the 
white people of the South deserve this infliction, 
I ask you whether you also deserve it ? If, taldng 
counsel of hatred, j'ou think you are making a 
government for j'our late enemies, I remind yoii 
you are also making a government for yourselves. 
Do the twenty-five millions of white people out 
of the ten States deserve such a government as 
you are unposing on them '? 

The masses of the Republicans do not under- 
stand the real nature of the sj'stem they are con- 
tributing to estabhsh. They are misled by party 
association and party antagonism, by the animos- 
ities created by the war, and the unsettled ideas 
which grow out of the novelty of the situation. 
The leaders are full of party passion and party 
ambition, and will not easily surrender the power 
of a centralized government, or the patronage 
and profits which are incident to an official ex- 
penditure of five hundred millions a year. The 
grim Puritan of New England, whose only child,^ 
whose solitary daughter, is already listening to 
the soft music of a Celtic wooer, — stretches his 
hand down along the Atlantic coast to the re- 
ceding and decaying African, and says : " Come, 
Id us rnle this conlbi^it to(;elher !" The twelve 
Senators from New England — with twenty from 
the ten States, would require only a few from 
Missouri, Tennessee, West Virginia, and from 
new States, — to make a majority. 

I do not forbid the banns. I simply point to 
the region which stretches from the Hudson to 
the Missouri. It is there that the Democracy 
must display their standards, in another, and, I^ 
tru^ iiii<u i*attle for oonstitutional government 



10 



and civil liberty. I invited j'on to tliat theatre 
last year. I come now to bid you, God speed 1 

Every business, every industrial interest is par- 
alyzed under excessive taxation — false systems of 
finance — extravagant cost of production — dimiu- 
islied ability to consume. You cannot obtain 
relief until jon cliange your governmental polic}'. 
You cannot change that, until you change the 



men who administer your government. The 
causes of the dangers in respect to our political 
institutions and civil liberty, and the causes of 
A'our suffering ia business, are identical. For 
the safety of tlie one, and for the relief of the 
other, you must demand of the people a cqangk 

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THE WORLD ALMANAC FOR 1868. . 

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